• 
• 
• 

Give Your Swing A Tune Up

Fix your swing faults and lower your score in 30 minutes

This Article Features Photo Zoom

The club has outraced my body.

3. DRIVE ACCURATELY
Not all tee shots need to end up in the fairway, but they definitely have to be in play if you want to score well.

To ensure this, it's important that your backswing matches your followthrough. When that happens, you can be sure your swing is on the same path. And that will help you produce a lot of great shots. Therefore a flat backswing should result in a flat followthrough, and an upright backswing should produce an upright followthrough.

My body has unwound too quickly. This causes a slice.

To start hitting more consistent drives, practice this simple drill: Choke down on your driver so that your hands are at the bottom of the shaft and make a swing. As you do this, keep the butt of the grip on the same plane in your downswing and followthrough. If your body unwinds too quickly and your hands are too slow, the club will lag behind you and produce a high right slice (the butt of the grip doesn't return to the same plane). If your hands outrace your body and the club crosses over, you'll hit a low left hook (the butt of the grip rolls over too quickly).

Remember the key to consistent tee shots is a swing that looks the same on the downswing and forwardswing. Once you've grooved that for a while in a 3⁄4 swing, extend it to a full swing and start striping it down the fairway.

4.FEEL THE CORRECT SWING PATH
If your swing path tends to move all over the place, there's an easy way to fix this, especially if you're a feel player. Just hold onto two irons and give them a swing at 1⁄2 to 2⁄3 speed. If you feel any jerks in your back- or forwardswing or a lack of balance or tempo, then you're on the wrong swing path. Continue to swing the two clubs and, as you're doing so, focus on creating a smooth swing. Try to match the backswing to the forwardswing so both are on the same path and you finish in balance.

Notice in the photos at left how my right shoulder mirrors my left in the backswing and followthrough? On the backswing, my left shoulder is in the same spot as my right one after I've swung. My swing doesn't jerk or sway—it's a compact, precise movement that moves around a fixed point. With two clubs (and twice the weight) you'll swing slower and create a more precise path. After feeling the right path, take that feeling and apply it to your normal swing.

Add Comment